Callie Monroe

Sexuality and Society

The Scarlet Letter and Juno Project

The theme of outer versus inner self is one that was represented in both the Scarlet Letter and the movie Juno. In both pieces, this theme was clearly presented and was a key component in the overall message of both. For these reasons, I decided to represent this idea in my creative project. I attempted to represent the idea of physically and emotionally displaying one part of your personality while concealing other parts and the repercussions of both.

In both of the Scarlett Letter and Juno, the characters that were able to outwardly express their emotions had an easier job overcoming any trouble that they faced. In the Scarlett Letter this concept was shown through the characters of Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmsdale. Hester was forced to express her emotions outwardly because she was marked with the Letter A, while Dimmsdale, who was equally as guilty, was enabled to internalize his guilt throughout the whole play. As a result Hester dealt with her feelings in a very manageable way while Dimmsdale bottled them up until he exploded. Through my project I wanted to represent this idea that how you portray your emotions on the outside can very often be the opposite of how you are feeling on the inside.

My creative piece consists of four different masks: two being the outer body and the other two being the inner body.  Each sets of masks represents a different side of the theme. One mask pairing displays a tranquil outside with a hectic inside and the other mask pairing displays a hectic outside with a tranquil inside. I represented tranquility by collaging my mask with natural and earthy elements. Nature is often associated with peacefulness and restfulness, so I thought it would most accurately symbolize a calm serene façade and/or emotion. I represented hectic emotions by collaging my mask with magazine clippings. I used mostly triangles because they have three sharp edges. To me, the edges displayed the clash and struggle that people often find when attempting to reveal their truest emotions. I also used a combination of warm colors (red and orange) and cold colors (blue and green) because they are opposite on the color wheel allowing for more contrast.

The biggest problem that I encountered while doing this project was finding a way to differentiate each set of masks from the other. I wanted them to all be connected, but I also wanted a clear differentiation between them. I found a way to do this by adding specific features. The outsides personas both have facial features to differentiate them from the inner personas and the inner personas are both separated into horizontal sections, the top representing a brain. I also wanted to connect both “tranquil” personas and both “hectic” personas to one another. I did this by adding small similarities to each piece. The outside “tranquil” mask uses a lot of red berries, so I connected the inside “tranquil” mask by adding a few berries. The outside “hectic” mask uses a lot of red triangles, so I connected the inside “hectic” mask by adding a red triangle.

I think that I did a really good job of displaying the overall theme. It is clear when looking at my project that each mask represents an opposing idea. I wish I had done a better job of connecting the outside of the mask to the inside of the mask. If I did this again I would find a way to clearly display which outside mask belongs to which inside mask.

Callie Monroe

Air Stream

Quarter 3 Benchmark

Process Paper

My initial assignment within my group was to make a short PSA that addressed all of the issues surrounding school district funding in Philadelphia. Such an honest assignment turned into something with many problems and difficulties that were not initially though of. The largest of these problems was that I do not have very many good technical skills. I know my way around the computer and can do most teenager things like facebook and ichat but crafting a video was a whole other story. I fooled around with imovie for a bit but all of my attempts seemed terrible. I then remembered a website that Ms Pahomov shared with my English class called Prezi. On this site I could pretty much just plug in all of my information and a good video/slideshow was sure to be produced. It is also much more user friendly than most video creating applications so I was able to use my limited computer skills more affectively. Another great thing about making a Prezi is that they are more interactive because the viewer has to physically change the slide. This brings me to another challenge that I had with the video.

I have seen lots of PSA’s in my life and some have stuck with me while most have not. I knew that in order for this multimedia aspect of my groups campaign to work it needed to be very visually appealing and not too boring. To overcome this challenge I decided to make my Prezi quite short. If it had been long people would either get incredibly bored and forget everything or stop watching in general. I also needed to pick key and important facts to represent and not try and tackle the whole issue of school district budget cuts. I think that I did a good job of this and that the Prezi turned out well.  Something that really helped with this was having my group members peer edit my Prezi before I published it.

A second aspect of the project that I worked on was the actual website that we decided to host all of our different components. Initially my group and I were going to put each component of our project up on different mediums but the problem with this was that they then wouldn’t mesh together very well. Creating a website allowed for all of our work to be hosted together.

In the end I think that my groups campaign turned out very well because we did a good job of collaborating together. Each of us had a skill that we were good at and it was really great that we were all able to bring them together to make a final product that we can all be proud of.

January 5, 2011

Gold Stream

Language Benchmark

“What are you?”

“I’m black.” I said

“No your not, if you were you would have said ‘I’m black nigguh.’”

“Okay, I’m black nigguh,” I responded. There was then uproar of laughter at the café table I was sitting at.

“You’re too white to say that.”

            This became a game where people would tell me to say something that was “too black” for me. It amused everyone to see a group proclaimed white person attempt to talk “black.” The opinion that I somehow talk very different from other black people is one that I encounter all the time, sometimes on a daily basis. Now instead of responding, I ask people where they think I’m from because it’s interesting to hear their responses. Some of their responses are crazy! I’ve been told that I look Australian, Dominican, Brazilian, but in fact my family does not have an ounce of blood from any of these places. It never occurred to me that the language I use and the words I speak are different from other black people, or, for that matter, any people in general. People use the way in which I talk to support their ideas about my race.

            My brothers and sisters experience the same racial questioning that I do. Like me, people think they talk “white.” Also like me, their complexions are considered light for black people. My older brother who has very soft curly hair is thought to be Italian by many people. My younger sisters hair is very long and several people assume that she’s Puerto Rican. My younger brother is the only one that people believe is actually black. But it is totally due to his complexion not the way that he talks. He has darker skin than all of us, but as a result of the way we all grew up, is still accused of talking “white.” Growing up my aunt went through these same things. She has a very pale skin tone but is still ethnically black. She felt as though she had something to prove to other kids who thought she was white so she tried to act extra “black.” I don’t mean to say that you can act black, but she tried to act in the way she felt black people were supposed to act.  I suppose you can say that we are not an average black family, but I wonder what an average black family is and looks like?

Whenever someone tells me that I talk white or that I don’t talk black I feel like there is no real place that I belong. Physically I’m not white, but verbally people consider that I am, which group is supposed to accept me? I wonder who made up the rules for how black and white people are supposed to talk? Does it have to do with the history of each race? Or is it today’s society that contributes to the defining of the way a race should talk?

            I grew talking like all my friends and family. Differences in the way races speak was never an obvious thing for me. White, Black, Asian, Latino, seemed to all speak the same as me. I suppose you can attribute the way I talk to the environment that I grew up in. From infancy I went to a school that had a majority of white people in it. Talking proper, or white as many people call it, was always emphasized. Grammatical errors were always corrected and cursing brought you a trip to the black bench. Most of my best friends are white, and I was one of about seven or eight black people in my grade. This lingo, or “white” way of talking, was the way that everyone I knew talked.

            James Baldwin wrote, “Language, incontestably, reveals the speaker.” The way in which you talk can portray your feelings on an opinion and even your attitude at the time but also so much more. The words you use, the way you compose your sentences, and how you articulate your syllables can all show where you’re from or the way in which you grew up. Everyone has a very distinct way of talking that is unique to his or her personal experiences. My history of living in environments and being around people that consider the way you talk a very important aspect of you are is the reason that I talk the way I do. 

            I don’t necessarily think that the way you talk is specific to your race. I know many other black people that speak in the same way that I do and many white people that speak in the way black people are “supposed” to. Your geographical location has more to do with it than anything else. Certain neighborhoods speak differently than others, just like people from different cities speak differently. In Philadelphia we call sandwiches hoagies but in many other places around the country they are called subs. In New York the commonly known word carry is substituted with schlep. Different words are adapted and changed over time. This concept is much the same for neighborhoods in Philadelphia. Words don’t really change from neighborhood to neighborhood but sentence structure does. One is not better than the other, they are just very different.

            I always talk to my parents and other family members about this issue because they always experience it as well. My mom once told me something that has stayed with me for a while, “the world is not black.” Just because I’m not considered or accepted by some black people doesn’t mean that other black people won’t.

For my fourth recipe I made Snicker doodle Cookie Bars. They are essentially the same thing as the cookie but in bar form. These were super easy to make, it took me a total of ten minutes to mix everything and get it in the oven. Overall they tasted very good. If I were to make these again I would use a different pan so that the bars were thinner. Because of the pan I used it took about an extra ten minutes to cook than the suggested time. 

Recipe Provided By: http://wiseanticsoflife.blogspot.com/2010/11/snickerdoodle-cookie-bars.html

Ingredients for Bars:

- 1 cup butter

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

- 3 eggs 

- 1/4 cups sour cream

- 2 cups flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp cream of tatar

- 1/2 tsp salt 

Ingredients for Sugar and Cinnamon Mix:

- 1/3 cup sugar

- 1 tbsp cinnamon

Step 1: Cream the sugar and butter

Step 2: Add the eggs one at a time

Step 3: Add the sour cream

Step 4: In a separate bowl combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Step 5: Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture

Step 6: Grease pan

Step 7: In small bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon to make sugar cinnamon mix

Step 8: Coat the bottom of the pan with the cinnamon and sugar mix

Step 9: Spread the dough in the pan

Step 10: Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until done

Step 11: Enjoy!

P.S. sorry for the bad picture quality. My camera was dead so I had to use an itouch. 

For my third recipe I made Arroz Con Leche. This was the hardest recipe I made. I think that I may have messed up on the directions when I made it because the consistency was very liquidly, like soup, when was supposed to be thick, like pudding. I think it was like this because it didnt cool before I served it, if I had let it cool it might have thickened up more. I hope you enjoy my post!

Recipe provided by: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/02/arroz-con-leche-rice-pudding/

Ingredients:

- 1 cup long grain rice

- 2 cinnamon sticks

- 2 strips lemon zest

- 3 whole cloves

- 4 cups water

- 1 egg

- 3 cups whole milk

- 1/4 teaspoon salt

- 1 tablespoon vanilla

-1 can condensed milk

Step 1: Soak rice, cinnamon sticks, lemon zest, cloves, and water in a sauce pan for an hour

Step 2: After one hour, heat the rice on high until it boils, then turn it to a simmer and let it cook for 10-12 more minutes.

Step 3: While the rice is cooking beat the egg in a bowl and add the milk. Mix well. 

Step 4: Add the milk and egg mixture, condensed milk, salt, and vanilla extract to the rice for 25-35 minutes or until desired consistency. 

Step 5: Enjoy!

P.S. I suggest going to the link I posted to see what the arroz con leche was supposed to look like. 

The second recipe I made was rice crispy treats. This recipe was not very advanced but my brother needed them for one of his classes so I volunteered to help him make them. The funnest part was cooking with my brother and the bars turned out well to. One mistake I made in this recipe was turning the stove on too high and burning the marshmallows so next time I make this I will make sure not to have the temperature too high. I hope you enjoy my blog post!

Ingredients: There are only three ingredients that you need for this recipe

-Rice Krispies 

-Butter

-Marshmallows

Step 1: Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan

Step 2: Add pack of Marshmallows

Step 3: Stir marshmallows over medium heat and add half a box of rice krispies

Step 4: Mix the rice krispies with the melted marshmallows and pour into pan

Step 5: Let cool and enjoy!

My project for this period is culinary arts. I love to cook but have never really dabbled in the world of baking. Please bare with me through this experience because I am still learning all the skills required to be a successful baker. I will choose at least one recipe a week and post it on this blog. I hope you enjoy my baking and are inspired to bake yourself. 

I decided to make jewelry because I am very interested in fashion and design. I think that much of what you wear resembles your personality and/or the mood that you are feeling that day. In my personal style I like to fuse girly and preppy with things that are more edgier and hard. This jewelry represents both aspects of my style. My grandfather was an engineer and still likes to build things around the house. He has a garage full of old bolts and other odds and ends. I aimed to use his old building materials to create something creative and wearable. The only item that I bought was gorilla glue. 

The first piece I created used nails and metal circles. I used the glue to connect the nails to the metal part, and used old fishing wire as a chain. The second piece I created used an old fish hook that I connected to my dogs old vaccination tag.